and it looks like high-speed rail will go over your head, not under your feet in san jose. those stories plus traffic and weather, this wednesday, september 15th, today in the bay. good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia cannon. >> and i'm brent cannon. the time now is straight up 5:00. >> time to get to rob with a look at our forecast for today. >> good morning to you. we have low clouds, even misty skies in parts of the bay area. san jose just main ly the low clouds. 58 degrees, northwest wind at 6. breakfast time everybody stuck with low clouds and they'll hang out on the coastline. san francisco about 65 today. 70 in oakland, 78 in san jose. big changes, though, showing up in your seven-day forecast. a look at that in a few minutes. with a look at your morning drive, here's mike. >> you showed a beautiful shot

of downtown san jose. very little traffic downtown itself. getting there, we do have an incident northbound 101. we have a lot of construction going on. continuing for that repaving project on the capital expressway offramp. it's closed until 6:00 a.m. use tully road as your alternate until that's picked up at 6:00. keep that in mind. we have no major slowing throughout the southbound freeways. i'll show you sinole coming up. cal graduate sarah shourd is on her way home to the united states after 14 months in jail in iran. right now shourd, her mother and uncle are on a plane headed from oman to dubai. oman played a critical role in the diplomatic deal and may have covered her $500,000 bail. iran is still holding shane

bauer and josh fattal behind bars. shourd's mother will share the ordeal on the "today" show later here. she is pleading for the release of shane bauer and josh fattal. >> i'm very happy, but it was very bittersweet because i want to have that same happiness and i know cindy does too. we want josh and shane home as soon as possible. >> the two were charged with espionage and will be forced to stand trial. we'll have a live interview with the state department coming up at 6:15. blowing the whistle on pg&e. before the deadly gas line explosion in san bruno, a pg&e employee came forward with safety violation claims against the company. this morning we have new information about the man behind those allegations. today in the bay's bob redell is live in san bruno this morning. bob, the employee is now suing

the company for what he believes is an attempt at a cover-up. >> reporter: this whistleblower has never worked on the gas pipeline that exploded here in san bruno, but mike wiseman, that's his name, has worked on other pg&e gas transmission lines for ten years. he claims that the utility giant often ignored safety rules and violations. he's quoted as saying, quote, one of the jokes in my department is pg&e management puts a safety cap on during safety meetings and takes it off when we hit the field. in one instance pg&e sent workers into a ditch to repair a gas line. the problem is, according to wiseman, none of those workers had proper training. when he'd bring up these concerns to his supervisor, wiseman alleges that he ret retaliat retaliated. one time they detained him overnight in this stockton hotel, pressured him to hand over his car keys, threatening to fire him if he didn't and

they drove his car to a locked location. >> pg&e has bonuses that are tied to safety. and when you have an incident or if you have somebody get hurt, then people start losing their bonuses. so this leads to supervisors covering things up. >> reporter: wiseman filed a whistleblower lawsuit against pg&e three weeks ago. in response pg&e says, quote, the company has no tolerance for retaliation. every employee is expected to stop the work in process and raise her or her concerns if there is an unsafe situation. reporting live here in san bruno, bob redell, today in the bay. >> thank you very much, bob. the blast impact is being felt in the north bay. neighbors in petaluma are rallying around bill arnold this morning. his wife, sandy arnold, is in an induced coma at st. francis memorial in san francisco. her sister and brother-in-law are also at the hospital. all three are suffering burns over 50% of their bodies.

their mother, 81-year-old elizabeth torres, died in the explosion. >> it just is so hard to believe, you know, when things happen, you feel terrible. but you never think it's going to be somebody that you're so close to or that you know. >> pg&e will look into whether they received a call from torres. her family claims she called pg&e because she smelled gas. they say she was waiting for them to come out when the explosion happened. there were so many stunning stories of survival that night like the story of betty, who is eight months pregnant. betty grabbed her three children and didn't look back. last night she went home for the first time. her family home is still standing, but it is badly damaged. she says her kids are afraid that the fire is going to return. >> sometimes it's heartbreaking because my 3-year-old still keeps on praying for our safety every night. she said that if i don't pray

for our safety, the fire might come back. >> betty and her husband spent yesterday packing up some of their keepsakes. stay with nbc bay area and nbcbayarea.com for the latest on the explosion. police patrols in oakland can soon start looking like an episode of "cops." the department is planning to buy 350 wearable video cameras for their officers on patrol. the new video technology to reduce the number of police misconduct allegations in the city and show evidence of crime or attacks against officers. right now 15 police teams are testing the video cameras in the field. opd will ask the city for $540,000 to buy that equipment. high-speed rail cars could be zooming overhead in san jose. city leaders are on track to approve an aerial railway through downtown. today in the bay's chris sanchez is live in san jose now with where that track would run. chris. >> reporter: good morning to you, brent.

i'm at the deerdon station. the question whether it is going to be 60 feet into the error below my feet where i'm standing is likely to be decided more by costs than by style. the city of san jose staff will study an aerial track instead of a tunnel through downtown san jose. we're talking about an elevated rail that could soar as high as six stories into the air. the stretch is likely to be between highway 87 and alma street and extend to where highway 87 connects with interstate 280. some people say that's going to be an eyesore but it could really be a money saver as well. because it will run up and down the state, the high speed rail authority has to sign off on the design and has to agree to let san jose consider that option. that decision is likely to come in the next two weeks. the city of san jose voted last night, a day after the city of palo alto asked them to refocus their environmental studies. it may decide next week to sue the agency over those same

studies. still a lot of decisions ahead for this project, which has right now a $43 billion price tag. live in san jose, chris sanchez, today in the bay. >> thanks, chris. tens of thousands of schoolchildren across the bay area are giddy with excitement, all because of new school supplies. elementary school kids in san francisco, alameda and contra costa county are getting book bags filled with free erasers, rulers, pencils and binder paper. parents who say money is tight are especially thankful. most of them are going to children whose families meet federal low income standards. the first round of supplies was handed out last week. we want to check in with mike and take a peek at your morning commute. >> good morning, brent. good morning, laura. i told you sinole was looking a little slow. i was seeing the southbound taillights have been backing up a little bit just in front of this camera. moving smoothly now. there's pretty light volume of traffic. but this is through the construction zone. there's actually a double white

line. that's not in effect until next week when that express lane opens so you can still use all lanes as normal heading southbound but keep that in mind. the map is not reflecting that and this time we're facing north so the taillights we showed you earlier are coming towards us. livermore, where we saw the earlier slowing coming out of the altamont pass have sorted themselves out. averaging right around 60, almost at the speed limit. speeds will start to dip over the next ten minutes and we'll walk antioch as well. we'll send it back to you guys. we want to get an early look at the forecast this morning and see how we should dress this morning. >> bundled up with a nice jacket for the morning and then transfer into t-shirt weather at least in san jose later on this afternoon. 57 this morning, so a little bit on the cool side. 59 right now in san francisco. notice the mist and low clouds across the golden gate bridge. that may slow your drive across the mid-span of our bridges with the low cloud cover. 58 in oakland. the wind has backed off a bit.

as we show you the satellite view, some interesting views here just off to our west. this does not look like september as all. the system that is moving on to our north today will drop a little further south late tomorrow and we may see bigger changes in your forecast come friday and saturday. around the bay area today we'll see temperatures in the mid-60s in san francisco, close to 70 in oakland and 78 in san ramon. 80s over toward concord cord and pittsburg. across the rest of the bay area, believe it or not, late saturday into sunday. the time now is 5:10. the giants take a step in the wrong direction. we'll show you how the race for the playoffs stacks up this morning. a new drug could be coming to fight obesity while another could be going away. and there's a major shakeup in politics and once again it's thanks to the tea party. we'll see what's happening. big night for them overnight. >> big morning this morning. nice temperatures on tap as we take a live look outside from

the south bay. we'll check your full forecast coming up. 5:10 right now. barbara boxer. she fought to get our veterans the first full combat carecalifornia. her after school law's keeping a million kids off the street and out of gangs. and she's fighting every day to create new jobs. boxer: i'm working to make california the leader in clean energy, to jump-start our small businesses with tax credits and loans, to create thousands more california jobs. i'm barbara boxer and i approve this message because i want to see the words "made in america" again.

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welcome back, everybody. the time now is 5:13. live look outside. 880 through the east bay. speaking of the east bay, some of the high temperatures expected, they were on your screen, they're gone now. we're looking at temperatures around 80, but then a little cooler -- >> a cool start to the day, but you can shed the layers as the day goes on. the tea party is shaking things up again. >> scott mcgrew in the newspaper to show us the results from last night's primaries. >> reporter: perhaps the biggest upset, laura, last night was in delaware. christine o'connell beat veteran congressman mike castle to become the republican nominee for the senate. o'donnell surged after getting an endorsement from sarah palin and a lot of cash from a tea party group. and in new york, a candidate sympathetic to the tea party won the republican nomination for governor. millionaire real estate developer carl paladino will

take on democratic attorney general andrew cuomo. pallaino is a newcomer to politics. embattled congressman charles rangel sailed to a win. the democrat has been dogged by ethics charges. now they include not reporting income and assets to the irs. he still faces a trial before the house ethics committee. now, as we talk about tea party wins today, we should be clear, those candidates ran for and won the republican nomination. the tea party did not run candidates on the tickets. those republicans are sympathetic to and funded by the tea party. that's it for rangel any way. he won't face any opposition from the general election. laura. >> interesting to see the strength behind that tea party these days. thank you. it's 5:15 right now. as afghans prepare to head to the polls, there's growing concern about violence and fraud. election observers have already reported finding fake voter

registration i.d.s. last year as many as a third of the votes cast for president hamid karzai were thrown out as fakes. election officials insist they have learned lessons from previous problems and will have tighter security and better coordination to cut down on fraud. the taliban vows to disrupt those elections. afghan police had to fire shots into the air as thousands of angry anti-american protesters took to the streets in kabul. a look at the scene there. many shouting death to america, death to christians and death to karzai. they also burned tires and blocked the main highway out of the city. some protesters carried a white flag, which is the symbol of the taliban. several people were detained and witnesses say several people were wounded. firefighters are working to contain a large brush fire burning near reno, nevada, this morning. it started around 7:30 last night. not threatening any buildings right now but it has burned

about 50 acres of ground so far. more than 1,000 firefighters are battling a pair of fires in southern california. one is in the sequoia national forest. a second fire flared up near calabasas. only six acres burned but it did threaten some homes before they could put it out. >> this week the food and drug administration advisers could vote to recommend a new drug to fight obesity and also vote to pull another one off the market entirely. today an fda panel of experts will weigh meridia's risks and benefits and discuss whether it should stay on the market or be pulled. it has been linked to higher rates of heart attacks and strokes in patients with heart disease. tomorrow fda advisers will consider whether an experimental drug should be placed on the market. researchers say it had few side effects in clinical trials where patients lost an average of 17 pounds over a year. they say it can also improve blood pressure, blood sugar and inflammation. if approved, it could be the

first new prescription weight loss drug in a decade. after being virtually tied with the padres for first place, the giants are now a game and a half out of making the playoffs in the nl west and also in the same spot behind the braves in the wild card race. last night a costly error led to a loss against the dodgers at at&t park. wat juan uribe booting the ball. the giants lose a full game on the padres. they beat the rockies in colorado. the padres made a late comeback but they do get it, 7-6 was the final. the a's try to bounce back from a bad day at the office. they take on the royals today at 5:00. a's pitcher gio gonzalez had his worst outing of the season. he only made it through two innings but gave up seven runs on seven hits and kansas city thumped oakland 11-3. a little trivia question for you this morning. who is the 2005 heisman trophy

winner? the answer is nobody. that's because former usc running back reggie bush says he will give back the award. it's the first time in college football history a winner has given up the honor. investigators found he accepted improper benefits while at sc. a decision will now be made on whether or not to award the trophy to the runner-up, who was vince young. twitter is tweaking its website. twitter plans to split its website into two panels. on one side you'll see your tweets, the other, images, videos and links. the company hopes the change will make surfing the site a little easier for its 160 million users. all the while, getting them to linger on the site a little longer. 5:19 right now. a little early in the morning to have to call a tow truck. a bummer if you have to do that. mike says somebody has got to do it. >> and it wasn't a regular tow truck, they needed a flatbed because the earlier accident. southbound 880 at mission boulevard. that's at the funnel where folks

funnel over from 680 and 880 heading southbound 880 making your way over towards fremont off 680 or maybe down toward milpitas. keep in mind there is an incident off the shoulder at the transition ramp. the east bay looking pretty good. the first to usually pick up the slowing, 580. still showing a 14-minute drive speed. still hovering right around the speed limit. that's great news coming out of the altamont pass. it's wednesday, we shouldn't see quite as many cars on the road as tuesday. 242 coming through concord and down through 680 a smooth drive. no major issues there. antioch typically shows the first signs of slowing and look that, close to the speed limit right here. i picked out horizon where yesterday we saw the initial slowdown and we typically see it through here or all the way over to 8th street. watching this zone but so far speeds above 50 miles per hour and no issues through pittsburg. that's great news for the volume of traffic coming through the east bay as well. live look at the bay bridge toll

plaza shows you a light flow. no problems on the east shore freeway and the golden gate bridge, nice drive from the north bay. what does that glow mean for your forecast? rob will have that information coming up in just a moment. and just when you thought flying could not get any more uncomfortable, here comes the sky writer's seat. check these out and find out why airlines may lovehem passengers are probably going to hate them. coming up next. wouldn't it be nice if every time meg whitman told a lie her nose would grow? newspapers report the claims in this meg whitman ad are false. and she knows it. taxes went down under jerry brown. but whitman's nose keeps growing by the millions. [ male announcer ] it's luxury with fire in its veins. bold. daring. capable of moving your soul. ♪

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meg whitman's nose keeps growing. whitman says california lost jobs under jerry brown. turns out 1.9 million jobs were created. she spent millions saying jerry brown raised taxes. but whitman's nose keeps growing by the millions.

good morning. show you san jose. 57 degrees, a little bit of a northwest wind at 3 miles per hour with low clouds filling into the santa clara valley. same story in oakland. a little mist near the water this morning. we're at 58 degrees over in san francisco. golden gate bridge commute, it is a little foggy around the midspan, 59 degrees. obviously the humidity is up and the low clouds are in this morning. good sea breeze today will make for good air quality all around the bay area. even the east bay looking pretty good. notice what's happening on the satellite view. forget the fact we're in september. at least as we get towards friday and the weekend, a pretty powerful jetstream noses into northern california and that will lead to changes for your weekend forecast. in the meantime things are looking pretty good. we're going to say it's going from warm to just plain weird by the weekend. today morning clouds, afternoon sunshine inland. fog sticking around the coast. this is the forecast for today and tomorrow. as we head into friday, the first chance of showers for the north bay. as the system brings in a lot of

moisture by september standards towards our coastline late saturday into sunday morning, i think we will see a chance of showers, especially from san jose northward midway through the weekend. bay area temperatures today some of the warmest locations. morgan hill, gilroy close to low 80s. for the coast we'll see temperatures in the 60s. 65 san francisco, so a fairly cool day. sweatshirt weather for you. close to 71 in oakland and around alamedaia. san ramon, pittsburg and concord, t-shirt weather inland with low 80s. mid-80s for calistoga and lake port. so your seven-day forecast shows not much change tomorrow. friday a chance of showers and keep that umbrella on stand by for the weekend. cooler as well. laura. >> thanks, rob. so you think airplane seats can't get any smaller? compared to what we're about to show you, regular economy class seats have never looked so good. a company called avian interiors is looking to sell these saddle style sky rider seats. the new configuration reduces

the seat between seats from 32 inches to just 23. that means more passengers on planes and more cramped flights. it can also mean lower ticket prices for passengers. how is that plan sitting with passengers? >> it was uncomfortable to me. i couldn't fly for two hours on that. it's like being on a horse. >> it may need to be a little bigger, i don't know. but for me it's perfect. >> the faa still needs to determine if the seats meet their standards. so far not a single airline has signed up for the sky rider. >> you kind of stand. >> you don't want turbulence, you'll hit your knees. the time 5:26. san francisco approves a new alcohol tax, but that fight is not over. we'll show you why. jerry brown gets a big endorsement despite some awkward moments this week. see who's backing him now. and another bay area police

department will put cameras on its officers. we'll show you who is following in san jose's footsteps coming up ilive [ male announcer ] jerry brown's good old days. but what really happened? cnn -- not me -- cnn says his assertion about his tax record was "just plain wrong." jerry brown went out there and took credit for the fact that the people of california voted for proposition 13,

which lowered taxes, which he opposed. and now he's going around taking credit for it. he raised taxes as governor of california. he had a surplus when he took office and a deficit when he left. he doesn't tell the people the truth.

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sunshine inland with 70s and 80s inland today. right now it's a foggy start in san jose. we'll have more on your weekend changes in the forecast coming up. >> we'll look forward to it. good morning. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm brent cannon. this is "today in the bay." new this morning, a month before last week's deadly explosion in san bruno, a pg&e employee filed suit against the company over safety issues. mike wiseman says he's trying to stop management from covering up safety violations that he claims he had pointed out to his supervisors. wiseman said supervisors threatened his job and at one point detained him in a hotel room. pg&e says they have no tolerance for actions against an employee who raises concerns. he will talk to a house

committee on transportation and infrastructure. that hearing starts in an hour and a half. oakland's police force will have a new set of electronic eyes. the move comes in response to community cries over police misconduct. christie smith is live at police headquarters and she joins us with more. >> reporter: good morning to you. well, let's say you're pulled over here in oakland and you have a disagreement with the police officer. well, the whole thing could be caught on tape because that officer is wearing a clip-on camera and the police chief here in oakland, he thinks that this could actually improve officer safety and reduce complaints about possible police misconduct. san jose police are already using a similar system and other departments say that basically everyone behaves better when they know that they're being taped. oakland police are testing about 15 of these clip-on cameras. at the end of the day the data can be downloaded so if a problem pops up, someone complains about an officer, they can go back and review the tape. the union city police got a

bunch of complaints about a police officer. turns out when they reviewed the tape, he was the one insulting and cursing out officers. they showed him the tape and he said never mind. there is some concern, though, among privacy groups that people should not be taped or at least that the entire incident may not be taped. either way, though, opd wants 350 of these cameras and they're asking the city council for $540,000 to pay for it. apparently there are some federal funds available. reporting live in oakland, christie smith, today in the bay. >> thank you very much. political frenemies are banding together now against meg whitman. he said he supports jerry brown's bid for governor. the endorsement comes a day after brown apologized to clinton for making a monica lewinsky joke and questioning clinton's ability to tell the truth. meanwhile republican meg whitman refuses to pull an ad that shows a 1992 debate where clinton accuses brown of lying about his

tax record. clinton says that ad is based on faulty information that came from a cnn report. whitman is slated to speak in san francisco today but there is no word if she will address the latest ads from the brown camp that depict her as pinnochio. >> whitman was ceo of ebay when ebay bought pay pal. employees from paypal started yelp and dozens of other very important silicon valley companies. the purchase of paypal one of whitman's smartest moves while she was at ebay. the purchase of skype was one of the worst. an executive from craigslist will be testifying before congress this morning talking about sexual exploitation of children. craigslist itself is not in trouble. it's helping lawmakers understand the problem. craigslist recently rid itself

of the adults services section where many of the sex workers posted advertisements. that was under pressure from lawmakers and social conservatives. soon hotel guests in one of the bay area's most popular tourist spots may have to do without room service. and many other services for that matter. starting in just two hours, workers at the hilton in san francisco's union square will vote on whether they will go on strike. the workers say the hotel chain is trying to lock them into recession contracts even as the economy rebounds. at the center of the stalemate, rising health care costs, workload increases and pension freezes. the union says hilton employees are among 9,000 san francisco workers that have been in contract negotiations since august, 2009. a political battle is brewing over a new tax on alcohol in san francisco. mayor gavin newsom promises to veto the fee that was passed yesterday by the board of supervisors. supporters say the fee will raise the price of a drink between three and five cents and it only applies to wholesalers.

now, the total tax is 35 cents per gallon of beer, $1 per gallon of wine and $3.20 per gallon of hard liquor. bar and restaurant owners say that fee is just going to be passed on to them and so it's going to hurt their business. it's 5:35 right now. people in fresno county better stick to planting flowers in their gardens. the county board of supervisors is banning outdoor marijuana gardens for the next 45 days. the ban applies to people with doctors' recommendations to grow and use pot. the decision comes after a series of violent confrontations between backyard pot growers and marijuana thieves. last week a man was shot and killed by a medical marijuana patient who thought thieves were raiding his crop. we'll take you out to sunol where we're looking at slowing

with the taillights. that's the southbound direction heading up the hill, then into fremont. we're seeing more cars through the area so this bay become an issue the next half hour which is pretty typical for this time of day. we do see slowing, speeds below 50 miles per hour coming out of pleasanton in towards highway 84. more folks coming through that area out of livermore but so far 580 holding up close to 60, 65 miles an hour. out of the altamont pass over to the dublin interchange, just 14 minutes but look at this, there is the signs we talked about. speeds below 50, getting closer to 40. pittsburg and bay point still moving smoothly. bart moving smootly. no delays for the bart system. rob, i do know for a fact i couldn't see the upper deck shot of the bay bridge, but we'll see what else is going on there. >> fog one part of the story this morning. 50s on your map, i have 50s on mine. right now concord 55 degrees, 52 in livermore where the low

clouds have moved all the way into the altamont pass. notice the winds pumping in the low clouds southwest at 17 into fairfield. some of our weather headlines this morning, we're waking up to mostly cloudy skies, some mist along the coast and around highway 17 right at the summit this morning. for the afternoon, some 80s inland but the real headlines are what's happening friday an for the weekend. yes, a chance of showers in parts of the bay area. today about 78 degrees in san jose. notice the temperatures along the coast, 60s over to san francisco, 74 at san mateo, 80s for concord up towards pittsburg, 78 in san ramon. things are starting to change friday for the north bay. showers to the north and cooler, scattered showers for the bay area from san jose northward this weekend. back to you. >> thanks, rob. there is another tragic death in the state's whooping cough epidemic. the latest death brings the number of california babies who have succumbed to whooping cough to nine. the california department of public health says the latest baby to die was less than two months old and lived in san bernardino county in southern

california. so far 3600 whooping cough infections have been reported across the state this year. that's a full jump since last year which is the highest number of cases since 1958. governor schwarzenegger will be in san bruno today but he's still in the air on his way back from asia. he wrapped up his trade mission earlier today. the governor push more trade between south korea and the u.s. he says more trade means more jobs. he took congress to task. >> there are sweet trade agreements gathering dust in the halls of congress, with panama, with colombia. together it's estimated that three agreements could boost america's exports to more than $10 billion and create tens of thousands of american jobs. what are they waiting for? >> a new trade deal with south korea is on hold because u.s. automakers have objections. they say it doesn't open up the

south korean market. the time is 5:38. a former pg&e worker says he wander the company a long time ago and we'll hear from him coming up. bp's tony hayward will be back in a familiar spot today. the hot seat. see who's grilling him today. surprising candidates are moving on after the last day of primaries. we'll take a look at what it could mean for the general election next. a cool start to the day across the bay area, but things will warm up. exactly where and when, we'll check the full forecast with rob. [ male announcer ] how can rice production in india,

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as governor, he cut waste got rid of the mansion and the limo budgets were balanced. $4 billion in tax cuts. world class schools and universities. clean energy promoted. 1.9 million new jobs created. california was working. i'm jerry brown. california needs major changes. we have to live within our means; we have to return power and decision making to the local level-closer to the people and no new taxes without voter approval. jerry brown the knowledge and know-how to get california working again. good wednesday morning to you. taking a live look outside, the golden gate bridge, folks making their way across the span. some expected highs across the bay area, not too bad.

a little cooler in san francisco, 65 degrees. san jose warming up to an expected high of 78. oakland, 70 degrees expected. big night for the tea party movement. several candidates will be on the general election ballots now in november. that means several establishment republicans will be left out. right now democrats couldn't be happier. today in the bay's tracie potts is live in washington, d.c., with more on what we can expect this fall. >> reporter: brent, in this primary, dozens of races, a couple that we want to point out because they really show what's happening nationwide. let's get right to it. one of the biggest upsets, the tea party winner in delaware, christine o'donnell, beat nine-term congressman mike castle. this is the candidate who the republican party leader in that state said couldn't win dog catcher. now she's the nominee there. moving on to new hampshire, they are still counting votes as going to the wire there. the former attorney general who was endorsed by sarah palin is winning at this point by about a

thousand votes but that's only about 1% of the electorate there. in new york, a wealthy developer, carl paladino, promised $10 million of his own money to win and in fact he has won the republican nomination to take on andrew cuomo, coming back from 40 points behind. he will now be in the general election. so the big picture, as we move into november, some tea party losses, some big tea party wins. they seem to be a factor as we head into this election. live from washington, i'm tracie potts, back to you in the studio. >> thanks for the update. outgoing bp ceo tony hayward faces another grilling on the gulf oil spill today. this time british lawmakers will put him on the hot seat. hayward is scheduled to give evidence to a parliamentary committee that is studying the fallout. he gave few answers during a

congressional hearing in june. he'll be replaced as ceo on october 1st. toyota is hoping a judge throws out hundreds of lawsuit over acceleration claims. they say lawyers for toyota drivers failed to pin opponent defects in the cars. hundreds of suits were filed after they recalled several models with brake glitches. the cases were consolidated and assigned to a judge in santa ana. it's 5:44 right now. you're watching "today in the bay." >> we'll check traffic and weather coming up in just a few moments. new this morning, we have information about a man taking pg&e to court for alleged safety violations. "today in the bay's" bob redell is live in san bruno this morning. bob, this whistleblower filed a lawsuit before last week's deadly gas line explosion. >> reporter: yes, brent, three weeks prior to the explosion here in san bruno alleging that

pg&e is lax when it comes to the safety of its gas lienes. for instance, letting workers with no or little training make a repair to one such line. mike wiseman, who's worked on pg&e gas lines for ten years, claims that when he complained to supervisors about this apparent lack of safety, they retaliated. in one instance, wiseman says, pg&e made him stay in this hotel and? stockton overnight and locked up his car. pg&e has responded saying that the company, quote, absolutely has no tolerance for retaliation. every employee is expected to stop the work in process and raise his or her concerns if there is an unsafe situation, unquote. it should be noted that mike wiseman, this whistleblower, has never worked on the gas pipeline that exploded here in san bruno. he does point out that the gas lines in this neighborhood are old. he wouldn't be surprised if that didn't contribute to this disaster. reporting live here in san bruno, bob redell, today in the

bay. >> thank you for the update there, bob. and traffic you shall get. just ten minutes ago i showed you a little slowing coming through antioch stretching over towards horizon. speeds in the 20s where it's red and in the 30s for most of the rest of the area coming off of the antioch bridge. really picking up by 8th street and heading toward horizon. a little bit of a break and now slow speeds in the 50s again as you're coming through pittsburg and bay point. livermore also showing a slowdown coming into livermore out of the altamont pass. heading over towards about north 1st street where things start to clear over towards the dub lick interchange. the bay bridge, no metering lights yet but folks are stacking up in those cash lines. we expect those metering lights to turn on in about a half an hour but the build through the area will continue. so far at the limit throughout the maze.

mike, the weather this morning may play into some of your morning commute this terms of the low clouds and fog we're seeing along the coast and around the midspans of the bridges. 50s across the board. hour by hour through breakfast time i think we'll stay in the 50s with mostly cloudy skies to start. jacket weather all around the bay area for the morning and then t-shirt weather for our inland valleys with some 80s around livermore and pleasanton. 78 san jose, 65 san francisco. tomorrow about the same. but the changes arrive friday with a chance of north bay showers. then across the rest of the bay area as we go through the weekend, saturday night into early sunday. back to you. this morning an elderly man is recovering after gunmen beat him during a home invasion robbery in mountain view. it happened on phyllis avenue around 9:15 tuesday morning. masked gunmen beat and tied up the 72-year-old man. they also tied up a woman taking care of the man. the man had injuries on his face and was taken to a hospital for treatment. he is expected to be okay. detectives are trying to figure

out what, if anything, was stolen from that house. cal graduate sarah shourd is on her way home to the united states this morning after 14 months in an iranian jail. right now shourd, her mother and uncle are believed to be on a plane heading from oman to dubai. u.s. officials say oman played a critical role in the deal and may have covered her $500,000 bail. iran is still holding shane bauer and josh fattal behind bars on spying charges. shourd's mother will share the ordeal coming up on the "today" show later on this morning. and then at 6:15 we'll talk with a spokesman from the state department about what's being done to free josh and shane, try to get more information on who ended up paying, if money was paid, for sarah's release. back to normal for customers of chase. scott mcgrew, for a while there trouble with online banking. >> reporter: the ceo of the parent company, jpmorgan chase apologizes this morning.

most northern californians became customers of the company after it bought washington mutual. yesterday the company suffered sporadic outages, most noticeably on its website. now, ironically the company was showing off a new iphone app at the same time. no word if the two are related. the takeaway on this, though, was that there was no hack, there was no information stolen. it was just a hiccup, particularly, laura, with online banking. new this morning, oakland police will soon be armed with new technology. a set of electronic eyes meant to catch officers behaving badly. today in the bay's christie smith is live at police headquarters. this move comes in response to really the community. they're crying over police misconduct. >> reporter: that's right. oakland police have been testing out these cameras and really like what they see. the police chief thinks this will improve officer safety, but also give him another way to monitor police interactions with the public and make sure that everyone is acting as they should. the officer wears a camera right

on their uniform and each one has a hard drive and the video is downloaded at the end of the day. if a problem comes back, they can go back and review it. san jose police are already using a similar system. for oakland police, they believe this will reduce accusations of police misconduct because the video and audio is recorded. other departments say people just behave better when they know they're being taped. opd is testing out about 15 of these units and are asking the city for 350 of them to the tune of $540,000, which seems curious on the surface since the city was just forced to layoff dozens of officers, but apparently there is federal funding available to help pay for it. christie smith, today in the bay. >> thanks. an idaho man is facing felony charges after confessing to knowingly infecting people with the hiv virus. sheriff's detectives say he admitted to having sex with about 20 people and not telling them that he is hiv positive.

he was already in jail on an unrelated charge when he admitted to having the affairs with people that he met on the internet and at various parks. authorities are now working to find other victims and so additional charges may be filed. police have a new approach to fighting prostitution. if you get caught soliciting, a prostitute, a letter detailing the offense is sent to your home. it says on such and such date you were arrested for trying to solicit a prostitute. the letter goes on to inform that it's a crime and strictly enforced and that it's dangerous and can spread disease. girl friends and wives tell us they'd be none too happy to see this in the mail. >> i would be very upset, very upset definitely. yes, i would. >> i would be calling a divorce lawyer because you'd have proof in your hand right there. >> along with the letter, police also include a brochure that talks about sexually transmitted diseases. they hope the threat of humiliation and embarrassment will go a long way towards cutting down prostitution. american airlines employees

out on bond this morning and out of a job after being charged with stealing a passenger's laptop. public safety officers at dallas-ft. worth international say they tracked a stolen computer to the home of denmark massamoto, an 11-year maintenance employee. >> it was simply one that had been traced to its location based on internet usage. so denver police asked our officers and detectives to follow up. >> he was the second american airlines employee in less than a month to be arrested on suspicion of stealing from passengers at dallas-ft. worth. so far he has only been charged with one count of theft. this morning firefighters are trying to gain ground on a wildfire burning in the northern colorado foothills. the fire is the second major one to break out on the front range in a week. so far it's burned about a square mile of brush just west of loveland. crews have dug lines around about a third of the wildfire. a wildfire near boulder last week destroyed more than 160

homes. one of the 33 miners trapped underground in chile is a father this morning. his wife gave birth to a baby girl. a little video of her now. the miner asked his wife to name her esperanza, which means hope. relatives recorded the delivery. they'll send the video down through one of the supply shafts so he can see it. more good news today, crews recovered a piece of a broken drill, so that means drilling will be able to resume on the rescue shaft today, which is good news. singer kid rock is still trying to sort things out after a fight at a waffle house. he had to go to court in georgia today. a man is suing kid rock claiming members of the singer's entourage beat him for no reason back in 2007. he wants thousands of dollars in medical expenses and damages. kid rock's lawyer says the other guy starred the whole thing. the singer did plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge. we are just hours away from crowning a winner on nbc's "america's got talent."

last night the four finalists had their last chance to try to impress the judges and the fans. the finalists include that little girl, the 10-year-old opera singer. all of them have a chance at the $1 million grand prize and a headlining show in las vegas. the winner of "america's got talent" will be announced tonight at 8:00. you can see it right here on nbc bay area. >> yeah. it's kind of cool seeing the farm grown talent out there. right now we want to check in with rob. i guess today is the warm day. after that it changes. >> this is september and we're talking very big changes as we head towards the weekend. for now we've got lots of clouds for the morning with sunshine inland for the afternoon. 80s inland today. friday a chance of showers in the far north bay. then the weekend big-time changes. you can see a hint of the changes on the satellite. a soggy day for the pacific

northwest. the jetstream will start to dip to the south on friday and that's going to bring the change in your seven-day forecast. today around the bay we'll be looking at temperatures in 78 in san jose, some low 80s around the southern end of the santa clara valley, 80s and pleasanton and livermore, 60s for san francisco and the coast. you'll get close to 70 in richmond and oakland and low 80s as you head into the delta around concord and pittsburg. the change begins friday in the north bay and across the rest of the bay area, san jose northward with showers saturday night into early sunday. back to you. >> i'll take it from here, rob. we wanted to show the folks the bui buildup at the bay bridge toll plaza. we had cash lanes at the bottom of the screen showing backup. that's usually because one of those cash lanes isn't open. there's either one on the right side or left side of the toll gate that is currently closed. that should reopen in the next few minutes to make things a little easier before the metering lights are turned on. the approach coming down the east shore freeway, still just 18 minutes off of the car keen

as bridge. still holding close to 18 and getting closer to 19 as there will be slowing out of richmond heading past the merge coming down the east shore freeway. sunol, 680, a live look and those taillights around the bend around the golf course have been slow from time to time this morning. right now it looks like a steady, nice light volume coming down out of pleasanton. pleasanton showing some slowing approaching the area of brunell as is pretty traditional this time of morning. the southbound peninsula an easy drive and the golden gate bridge. those flashing flights, that's just some equipment moving across the bay. they also have moved cones in preparation for the morning commute. the backup at the toll plaza should sort out itself. an easy drive coming from the top of your screen down through marin. no major delays through the north bay. we'll follow that as well. >> that truck has christmas lights on it. >> it does. a major transit agency is asking for your help in the latest route changes. plus remember this woman we

talked to after the san bruno explosion? she's pregnant and had to rush herself and three children to safety. we've got an update as she was let back into her home. and we check in with the state department about freed hiker sarah shourd. we'll have a live update on what's next in that case. and a live look outside this morning. this time from the south bay. enjoy today. temperatures are going to change.

investigator start to zero in on how the san bruno explosion could have been prevented. we have a look at what might have been done to keep people from being killed. and what a whistleblower says about the safety of pg&e's gas line. we'll have his complaints coming up in a live report. full-time lookout. today oakland announces a new way to back up its officers and